Why it’s popular: People give advice to “sleep on it” because it feels empathetic, caring. It’s the chamomile tea of business advice. They want you to feel good, and they know a little sleep will make you feel better about your choice, whatever it is. They might also want you to stop talking because they’re bored, stressed out, and don’t have any real advice for you about what to do.

Why it’s secretly bad: Usually sleeping on it doesn’t help you make a better decision, it just gets you comfortable with the choice you already have in mind. When you sleep, your brain tries to make sense of the events of your life, with you as the hero. In part it does this by editing out unnecessary or conflicting details so they don’t bother you any more. So, “sleeping on it” when you already have an inkling of what to do amplifies your natural tunnel vision bias, making it easier to commit to decisions good or bad.

When it’s good: Sleeping on it is good advice if you or a colleague are facing a really hard problem and really, truly have no idea what to do. Then when your sleeping brain goes to work making sense of the events of your life, it has a specific heroic problem to solve. It sifts through massive details trying to find the best answer, and when it's done it wakes you up in the middle of the night with an a-ha moment.

Better business advice: If a colleague is just spinning on a decision, don’t send them to bed, ask them this: “What are three other choices that might work?” Based on our Cloverpop decision database, there’s a 56% chance they’ll think of a better choice right there, and then you’ll be the hero.

Even better advice: Ask other people on the team to weigh in with their best choice, in writing. Our research shows that when business teams of 3 or more people weighed in on decisions together, they made better decisions 75% of the time.

Bad Advice #2 - Go with your gut.

Why it’s popular: People give this advice because it feels swashbuckling, daring. It’s the crystal meth of business advice. They’ve followed this advice themselves, and they know it’s quick, easy and exciting. They probably also want you to stop talking so they can get back to work, and don’t have any other good advice for you.

Why it’s secretly bad: Your gut is shorthand for your lazy lizard brain. If you’ve only made a decision once or twice, or read about a similar situation on a blog somewhere, then you might be able to talk a good game, but your gut is guaranteed to be overconfident and blind to its ignorance. Going with your gut probably means going with the choice that first drew your attention, for whatever random reason your lizard brain found attractive. Think about it - when you go with your gut, at first you have no idea why your gut is pointing you in that direction. You then start making up explanations for yourself and other people. Ironically, this is called rationalization, even though it’s probably leading you away from a rational decision and right into a narrative fallacy.

When it’s good: Going with your gut is good advice if you’ve made essentially the same decision 50, 100 or 200 times before, and have a very clear grasp of the variations and results of different approaches. When your gut is highly trained, it can quickly cut through the clutter to the right answer with well-earned confidence. That’s also why fire-fighters and fighter pilots do so much training, so their gut is ready and right when faced with split-second life-or-death situations.

Better business advice: Invest a minute or two writing down your gut’s decision, including a brief description of what you expect if things go right, and any other options you considered. This will be useful for communicating with colleagues, and it creates a record so you can check in later and change course if needed once the world weighs in on your decision.

Even better advice: Spend 10 minutes following a proven decision checklist to frame and get input on your decision. The 10 minutes you spend will save you 10 hours of unneeded circular discussion and help you come to a clear, committed decision 10 days faster.

Treat decision making like it's your profession.

Decision making is a core skill of business leaders, perhaps our most important duty. Avoiding common and unproven advice to "sleep on it" or "go with your gut" might seem hard to do, but it’s really not. That queasy feeling you’ve got is just your lazy lizard brain trying to trick you into sticking with your current bad habits. Don't be fooled. You’ve got this. And you can turn things around even faster with easy to use decision-making tools. Here’s to new, helpful habits!